Young Geek Love
by TheAlphabetSong
Summary: A series of Neric one-shot- everything from flirting to dates. Includes Densi moments in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- Due to my recent obsession with NCIS LA, I have decided to do a series of Neric (Nell and Eric) one-shots. They do not follow any order, or purposely relate to each other.**

**This one-shot is an extension followed on from Neric scenes in 'Greed' (S03E08) but the end is my own work.**

**Disclaimer- I do not own NCIS LA or any of the characters.**

**Please R&R**

Flowers

Eric walked up to the desk where Nell was perched behind a computer, explaining something to Sam and Callen. He noticed a vase of flowers sitting on Nell's desk. 'From who?' He wondered.

As he came closer Eric said, "Nice Flowers," In a tone of trying to figure out why she had flowers.

After Eric finished explaining the information to Sam and Callen they left leaving the opportunity to find out more about the flowers.

"Happy Birthday?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"It's not my birthday," Nell said.

"Right, I actually knew that," Eric said trying to cover for his mistake and then added, "and so the flowers are for-"

"No occasion," Nell replied finishing his sentence.

"So you have flowers just because?"

"Yep."

"So somebody did send them,"

"No they just grew there," Nell responded sarcastically before asking curiously, "why are you so surprised that somebody would send me flowers?"

I'm actually not surprised," Eric said, "at all," before he turned and walked away.

Nell's P.O.V

What did he mean by that? Was he flirting with me? No Nell Jones concentrate no time to think about that I have an 8.5 million dollar box of gold to find.

Later that Day in Ops

"So are you in a 'thing' now?" Eric asked, "like, umm, with another person?" He continued, "like a relat-"

"Don't say the 'R' word," Nell said cutting him off quite harshly before taking her normal tone of voice and adding, "I don't have to be in an 'R' word to get flowers."

"Well of course not you can get flowers for a lot of other things," Eric said.

"Yes, a lot, of other reasons," Nell started, "like if I-"

"Died," helped Eric, "or if you had major surgery," and then the thought passed through his head, "have you had a major surgery?"

"No I have not," Nell confirmed.

"And you're clearly alive," Eric pointed out, stating the obvious.

"Yep," Nell said then adding, "I have to go and talk to Hetty," as she stood leaving ops and the conversation.

Later that day in Ops- again

Nell walked into Ops later that afternoon. When she noticed Eric had a single, lonely looking flower in a glass.

"Oh look at that," Nell said referring to the flower.

"Oh, yeah, a little gift."

"Did you have a surgical procedure in the last hour?" Nell inquired.

"No," He stated, "and I am not dead. In case you were wondering."

"Well that's funny, that we both got flowers on the same day," Nell stated.

"That's odd."

"Or a coincidence," Nell said.

"Weird," Eric stated.

"Very weird," she confirmed.

Nell sat down and sighed.

"Okay, I sent the flowers to myself," she admitted.

This comment startled Eric, Nell knew this because all Eric had to say was, "Oh."

When Nell realised she'd just rendered Eric speechless she added, "I really like flowers and it's been a long time since anybody has sent me flowers so I sent them to myself."

"Great," Eric said before realising what he had said.

"Great?" Nell questioned.

"I mean, sad," Eric said trying to cover his mistake.

"Well if I sent myself flowers what's your excuse?" She asked.

"Well I saw you had flowers, so I gave myself a flower."

"Okay, why?"

"Because when I saw that you had flowers I felt-" Eric started, but stopped quickly, stuck on words because he wanted to say jealous but knew that would sound ridiculous.

"Competitive?" Nell suggested.

"Yes, I felt competitive when I saw that you had flowers," Eric said, although that wasn't exactly what he originally wanted to say.

"So where did your flower come from?" Nell asked, curious.

"Hetty has a bunch of flowers on her desk. I didn't think she would miss one," Eric explained as if it wasn't a big deal.

"You know that's playing with fire," Nell said, before the thinking about this and what it meant, "you sacrificed yourself for a flower. You sacrificed yourself to compete with me."

There probably would've been further discussion on the matter if Eric hadn't have gotten a hit and they'd gotten back to work without another word on the conversation.

Later that Week

With Kensi and Nell

It was a cold Saturday night and they had just finished a case and were leaving when Nell walked up next to Kensi asking if she wanted to do something that night. They ended up going to see a band that was performing at a local club.

"How did Eric react to the flowers?" Kensi asked as they waited in line outside the club.

"You were right," Nell admitted.

"I told you it would work," Kensi said with a proud smile on her face.

"I'm just not sure if it was all worth the effort, because if anything I'm only more confused now," Nell said exasperated.

"Tell me about it," Kensi said it in a similar tone to Nell's.

"Deeks?" Nell guessed.

Kensi sighed, "He acts like a 3 year-old, hides behind his facade of humour yet he probably knows more about me than anybody else. He knows when I'm fine, he knows when I'm not fine, he knows how to make me smile and yet he never says what he means... I just don't get it," she finished shaking her head.

They approached the entrance to the club and paid for the tickets for entry. You normally wouldn't have to pay but because there was a band performing it was a $5 entry fee.

"Even with all the technology the world has at its disposal we will never understand what's going on inside their heads," Nell said.

They walked up to the bar and ordered two drinks once taking their seats.

"But at least if we can't figure out their secrets they can't figure out ours," Nell continued with a smile on her face.

"Now that's something I'll drink to," Kensi said picking up her glass and clinking it with Nell's before taking a sip.

At one point they got up and danced for about half an hour. Well by danced it was more like half an hour of jumping up and down. But had, had enough after a while and were ready for some more drinks, so Kensi ordered another two. It was their 5th of whatever they were drinking and they'd started down the path to being drunk.

"What are you planning to do?" Kensi asked Nell.

"Keep drinking," she responded.

"No, not about that, about Eric," Kensi said finishing in a semi-serious tone.

"No idea."

"But it's simple isn't it. You like him and he clearly likes you too, ask him out," Kensi said half giggling by the end of it.

"You're one to talk," Nell said who was clearly still soberer than Kensi.

At once it was as if all the alcohol in Kensi's blood stream vanished and she was all of a sudden very serious.

"If you're talking about Deeks and I, forget it. We have to work out our issues."

Nell nodded her head and said, "Fine, fine," in a very sarcastic tone, "I guess I'm just waiting for Eric to ask me, or something, I don't know," she finished with a sigh.

They finished their drinks and Kensi checked her phone to see what the time was.

"Oh, god, look at the time. It's almost 12 and we've got to be able to get up and go to work tomorrow," Kensi announced.

"Ugh yeah, I mean I love my job but sometimes I don't want to have to get up in the morning, I wish I could just stay in bed all day," Nell said.

"I know what you mean," Kensi said as they stood up and left the club.


	2. The Beach

**A/N- I'm going to try to update every Friday afternoon/ Saturday morning but I can not make any promises.**

**I really appreciate reviews.**

Eric and Nell go to the beach one day.

It was the middle of the teams holiday break when Nell got a call from Eric.

"Hello," she answered in a cheery tone although hoping it wasn't another call about going to the movies because they had been to the movies on their last 3 dates and Nell was tired of it. Anything but the movies, she prayed to herself.

"Have you ever been surfing?" Eric asked.

"No, I have not. Actually it's been a while since I've been to the beach," Nell confessed.

"What? You live in LA and you haven't spent any time at the beach recently?"

"Correct."

"Are you doing anything tomorrow?"

"Nothing, except for some grocery shopping."

"Well then I am taking you to the beach and teaching you how to surf, what do you say?"

"I would love to go to the beach with you tomorrow and let you attempt to teach me to surf, but my Dad tried to teach me when I was younger and it didn't go so well."

"Well, I'll take my chances."

"Okay, how does eleven- thirty sound?"

"Great, I will pick you up at eleven- thirty."

"See you then," Nell said hanging up and collapsing back onto her bed before turning the TV on. She had a big smile plastered on her face and was looking forward to the next day.

The next morning Eric woke up to his alarm clock.

"Oh god, seriously," he grumbled, blindly searching on his bedside table for the snooze button on his alarm clock rolling over and sitting up before fumbling around on his bedside table for his glasses. If he was awaken by his alarm clock (which he was) it meant that it was 7 o'clock, he had roughly 4 hours before he had to pick up Nell.

He clambered out of his bed and wandered out to his kitchen where he opened the fridge. Talking to Nell yesterday had reminded him that he needed -desperately- to do some grocery shopping. So since he was up and had nothing to eat for breakfast he decided that he'd do the shopping now.

When Eric got home he decided on having some cereal and coffee for breakfast. When he'd finished he went into his small tv room where he had all of his gaming consoles, games and DVD's.

He went over to his X-box, inserting Modern Warfare whilst picking up a controller and sitting down of his sofa he continued in campaign mode.

Nell had decided to skip her Saturday morning sleep-in and get up at her usual time of 7 o'clock to finish some paper work before her date with Eric, which was in about 2 hours.

She'd almost finished filling out a report when her phone rang. She picked it up and saw that the called ID was Kensi.

"Hello," Nell answered slightly excited voice.

"Someone's in a good mood," Kensi stated.

"I'm going to the beach today," she said before pausing and adding, "because Eric wants to teach me to surf."

"Sounds like fun."

"Yeah, my Dad tried to teach me when I was younger but it didn't go so well and at the age I was any time someone mentioned anything about leaving my books I was a terror."

"That doesn't sound like you."

"Anyway, why did you call me?" Nell asked getting to the point.

"Can you please forward me that survey, my email has been stuffing up recently?" Kensi asked.

"Yeah, sure and I'm sure either Eric or I can fix whatever problem you have with your email."

"Ok, thanks."

"I'll send you the email in a minute, okay?"

"Yeah, "Kensi said, "and once again thanks, but I've got to go."

"See you later," Nell said.

"Bye," Kensi replied closing the call.

Nell walked into her room and took her tablet off charge. She flipped it open and unlocked it going into her emails so that she could forward the email to Kensi.

After Nell had sent the email to Kensi she was tired of doing paper work so decided she would get ready instead.

~~11:20~~

Nell heard the sound of a car pulling into her driveway. She was tempted to get up and open the door before he rung the door bell but decided against it for obvious reasons. She waited until Eric came up to her door and rung her door bell. Nell liked her door bell, it sounded like a wind chime.

As she walked over to the door she took a deep breath before opening it with a bright smile on her face.

"Hello," she said.

Eric produced a small bouquet of flowers from behind his back and handed them to Nell.

"Hi," was all he had to say.

"You got me flowers," Nell said with a tone of voice that gave Eric the impression that she was surprised.

"I remember how you once mentioned that you really like flowers and that you don't get them often, so I bought you some yellow and orange tulips."

"Thank you," Nell said before wrapping her arms around Eric and giving him a hug, "so, what's the basics of surfing?" Nell asked as they broke out of their embrace, picking up her bag and locking her door behind her.

"Well," Eric said before launching into a long explanation about surfing. Not that Nell minded, she loved listening to him explain things, it was one of the things she liked about him.

~~The Beach~~ As Eric and Nell got out of the car they both closed the doors and Eric got his surf board down from the top of the car.

He was wearing a wet suit with a unbuttoned, button up shirt over the top. Nell was wearing a one-piece swimsuit with short board shorts and a semi- transparent red shirt over the top with a wide but floppy brimmed hat and sunglasses.

They found a nice spot to sit, so they put their towels down before sitting on them.

"It's a really nice day," Nell said leaning back on her elbows.

"Indeed it is," replied Eric looking at Nell, "and the waves look pretty good," he added.

Nell laughed, "Don't count on me catching any."

"How could you not with me as your coach," Eric said in a convincing tone.

"Fine then, if you're the so called 'Master of the Waves' show me what you've got," Nell said.

"Okay then," Eric said getting up and handing his glasses to Nell shrugging of his unbuttoned button up shirt, picking up his board and heading toward the waves.

Nell watched him paddle out on his board and wait around for a wave for a while. After a short time he caught one and stood up, only to then be dunked by it. This made Nell laugh and when Eric re-emerged from the water he saw Nell laughing, Eric didn't care very much for making a fool out of himself as long a he could hear her laugh, he couldn't care less for the water that he had in one ear as long as she laughed. By the time he walked back up to Nell she had stopped laughing and greeted him with a comment of.

"Nice one Wolfram," she said.

"Well I don't see you doing any better," Eric replied in a playful tone, before pulling Nell up by her arms.

"How cold is the water?"

"Surprisingly warm," Eric replied.

Nell placed her sunglasses and hat on the ground before she took her red shirt that was covering her swimsuit off and leaving it on the her towel. As she walked further towards the waves she took a cautious step forward and lightly touched the waters edge with her toe. It was cold. Eric knew this and had lied to her earlier because he knew she wasn't overly fond of the cold. Eric came up behind Nell and picked her up, walking quickly into deeper water, ignoring her pleads as he dropped her into the waves. Eric could tell Nell was trying to hold back a smile but failing to.

"Its not so cold anymore," Nell said.

"Getting in quick is the best way."

The waves were rather calm where they were and so Nell floated on her back relishing in the moment. Nell felt as though she wasn't floating surrounded by water but by serenity, all was peaceful she could've laid there for hours but when a massive wave broke on top of her she was forced to come back to the world of reality. When she re-emerged fought her way to the surface she blinked a few times letting her eyes re-adjust to the sun light, when they had she saw that Eric was standing in front of her.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, it was just a wave. That conveniently dumped me in a patch of seaweed," Nell said pulling a piece of seaweed out of her hair. She still had some seaweed left in her hair so Eric plucked it out.

They spent some more time at the beach until later they went to a cafe to get some lunch and then Eric drove Nell home.

"Today was great, I had a really nice time," Nell said standing on her front porch with Eric.

"I had a good time too."

"The beach was definitely a good idea."

"Yeah, and its a nice change from the movies," Eric said, "to be honest I was kind of over them."

"Me too," Nell admitted.

"But I thought you loved the movies," Eric said, confused, "that was the only reason I kept inviting you to the movies."

"So you sat through all those movies because you thought I enjoyed them?" Nell asked thoughtfully.

Eric nodded.

"Thank you," Nell said standing on her tiptoes to give Eric a quick kiss before saying, "I'll see you when I see you," unlocking the door and going inside.

"Yeah, I'll see you then."


	3. Chapter 3- Double Date

**A/N- I'll update as often as possible but don't count on weekly updates, because I know that it's a promise that I'll break. **

Nell and Eric and Kensi and Deeks go on a double date.

Deeks walked into work the next morning and sat down at his desk, Sam and Callen were as usual already there, were as Kensi who was normally very prompt was late.

"Hey Shaggy," Sam called, "you seen Kensi this morning?"

"Nope, haven't seen her since last night."

"So I'm guessing things didn't go as well for you as it did for the wonder twins?" Sam assumed.

"They came in this morning looking rather close," Callen said.

"No, no, no," Deeks said back pedaling the conversation, "I think you're taking this the wrong way all I said was that I haven't seen her since last night. She'd left my place this morning by the time I'd gotten up," Deeks concluded still completely ignoring Sam and Callen's previous comments.

The sound of Eric whistling directed their attention from their conversation to the second landing of the stairs on the way up to Ops.

"We've got a case," Eric announced before heading back up to the safety of Ops.

Just as Eric disappeared, the team (excluding Kensi) got up from their seats as Kensi walked into the bullpen.

"Got a case," Deeks explained.

The Previous Night

Nell and Eric had just arrived at the restaurant when they saw Deeks and Kensi already had a table. They went in and sat down at the table greeting Kensi and Deeks before picking up a menu.

"So what are we drinking tonight?" Nell asked Kensi noticing the drinks on the table.

"Beer," Kensi replied.

"Same," Deeks agreed.

A waiter must have noticed that more people had entered the restaurant and came over to their table.

"What can I get you?" he asked directing his question at Nell and Eric.

"I'll have what they're having, please," Nell said before turning her head in Eric's direction as if to tell him that it was his turn to order.

"Same."

"What movie are we seeing later?" Eric asked.

"The Great Escape," Deeks told him.

"Which one?" Eric asked.

"Which one? You mean you have to ask which one?" Deeks said jokingly outraged, "the original, released in 1963 starring Steve McQueen," he answered as if it were the simplest question in the world.

Kensi looked at him as if to say 'how do you remember this' but even she couldn't hide the spark of admiration in her eyes when she looked at him.

"You two are too cute," Nell said.

"And yet it took you so long to ask the question," Eric added on directing his statement at Deeks.

"Yes and how long did it take you Beale?" Deeks rhetorically shot back in intention to shut him up.

It clearly worked because to Deeks' comment Eric had nothing.

A waitress came to their table.

"May I take your order," she said with a thick Australian accent.

"I'll have the steak sandwich," Deeks said.

"Will that be with a side of salad or mashed potato?"

"Well you only live once so why spend it living completely healthy," Deeks said flashing his trademark charming smile at the waitress, getting a small smile in return before Kensi kicked his chin and his expression resolved from a smile as he said, "I'll have the mash potato."

"I'll have the same but with the salad, please," Kensi ordered.

Nell was staring into space when the waitress looked at her, noticing her lack of response, Eric nudged her arm with his elbow.

"Hmm, yeah, sorry. Can I get the chicken Caesar salad, please?" Nell asked.

"Sure," the waitress replied before turning to Eric and asking, "and what will you be having?"

"I'll have the chicken schnitzel and fries please," Eric said.

"So that's two steak sandwiches one with a side of salad and one with a side of mash potato, one chicken Caesar salad and a chicken schnitzel and fries?" the waitress asked.

"That's everything," Nell confirmed.

"Your food will be out shortly," the waitress included before she turned and left the table making a beeline for the kitchen.

About half an hour later their food was served and they were all eating and talking.

"By the way during the movie there will be no quoting lines. That's directed at you Deeks," Kensi instructed.

"Yeah, can you add pointing out continuity issues to the list?" Nell asked.

"What's your problem with me occasionally telling you when the explosion should've killed the bad guys?" Eric asked.

"Well I think it's adorable but it can get a little annoying when you keep ruining fantasy with reality," Nell explained, noticing that Eric had turned a slight shade of pink, clearly from the first part of Nell's sentence.

"Then there shall be no pointing out of the continuity issues," Eric proclaimed, with a fake British accent.

"No, no, no you should pronounce it more like this," Deeks said before jokingly impersonating Eric's previous line with an accent even worse than Eric's, which just set them all into bursts of laughter.

They finished eating and split the bill between the four of them which ended up not being as expensive as any of them had thought. Soon after they left and started walking to the movie cinema, when they arrived they bought tickets and popcorn and Deeks bought a packet of lollies for Kensi who had insisted. They went into cinema four and found their seats Deeks sat next to Kensi, who sat next to Nell, who sat next to Eric who had drawn the metaphorical short straw and had to sit on the isle.

As the lights dimmed signalling the start of the movie Eric leaned across to Nell and whispered, "Did I mention earlier that you look beautiful tonight?" as he placed a kiss on her cheek.

Nell blushed, lucky that it was dark otherwise Eric would've seen, and also what had brought on that sudden comment.

As the movie came to a close and the lights slowly returned to their previous state of full illumination, they all rose from their seats and exited the cinema.

"That movie was good," Kensi stated.

"Wow, wait did I just hear you compliment my movie choice?" Deeks asked.

Kensi said nothing but punched him in the arm, like she always did, with a big smile on her face.

"One of the scenes in the movie for some reason reminded me of a scene in another movie, where the main character is in a casino and says the line 'Never odd or even'-" Kensi started before Eric cut her off.

"Did you know that the phrase 'never odd or even' is a palindrome?" Eric asked.

"Okay, what the hell is a palindrome?" Kensi asked.

"It's a word or phrase that reads the same backwards and forwards; one of my favourites is 'A man, a plan, a canal; Panama', published in 1948 by Leigh Mercer in an issue of _quotes and queries_," Nell added.

"I don't even know why you know that," Eric stated.

"Okay, okay," Kensi said before they broke out into a fake argument.

"Who's up for coffee?" Nell asked helping Kensi with the diversion from their previous topic. Judging by the lack of response Nell added, "there's one two blocks from here and I'm buying."

"Sounds good," Deeks said in agreement, followed by Kensi saying, "Yeah, I'm in."

Eric figured that since everyone else was going he would just tag along.

They all walked the two block stroll to the late night cafe laughing and talking until Deeks had the brilliant idea to play a game whilst they walked the short distance. The game that he suggested playing was where you picked a number plate and using the letters you had to make a sentence or phrase so for example if the number plate was 'F3N9IL3' you could make 'fingers nip idle lakes' Deeks said that the weirder the better.

All were against the idea but continued walking towards the coffee shop.

They all got a cup of coffee but were tired so all just got them in to-go cups, before going to their respective houses for a good night sleep, or so they said they did.

**Please R&R**

**TheAlphabetSong xx**


	4. Chapter 4- Some Advice

**A/N- Thank you to XoxMountainGirlxoX for your prompt for this one-shot and I hope you enjoy it.**

**And thanks to all of you who are following and/or reviewing this story.**

**This is currently the longest one-shot I've written**

**R&R TheAlphabetSong xx**

Sometimes when everything decides to crash and burn and everything you try to do goes south all you need is some advice from a friend who's been through it all before.

The apartment block that Nell lived in was being exterminated from a case of termites so she was staying at Kensi's until the residents were given the all clear to come back. Frankly the whole situation had been adding some stress to Nell's life because she really didn't want to have to find a new place but knew she would have to if the exterminators couldn't get rid of the termites and it was a very extreme case.

She parked down the street from Kensi's house getting her messenger bag from the passenger's seat of her car, as she got out of her car and locked it she swung her bag over her shoulder. She walked up the street to Kensi's, whilst fumbling around in her bag for the spare set of keys she had for Kensi's house. Approaching the front door she found the key and put them into the lock, as she opened the door she peeked into the lounge room.

"Kens?" she called, when she received no answer she called again, "Kensi."

No response, maybe she'd gone to get food because it was a well known fact to everyone in the OSP team that Kensi was a terrible cook. Nell opened the door and went inside, as she turned the light for the lounge room on she wished she had of called Kensi's name louder because there on the lounge she saw Kensi and Deeks making-out. As the light came on, they hastily broke apart.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Nell said, "I should've called your name louder and knocked or something. God! I'm so sorry," before continuing to apologise profusely until she was cut off by Deeks saying something which Nell didn't really listen to because she was still shocked by the scene that she had walked in on. Although to be honest she was surprised she hadn't walked in on them previously, it had been just over a month since Deeks had proposed- well started to, he didn't even get out the entire sentence out before Kensi accepted, and since that day they'd been rather close.

"- I think we all knew it would happen eventually," Kensi admitted.

"And it won't happen again. Sorry again, I promise that I'll be out of your hair as soon as they've gotten rid of the termites," Nell said.

"No, feel free to stay as long as you need, you aren't any trouble Nell and don't you think otherwise," Kensi replied.

"Are you sure?" Nell asked, "it's just that since you've been engaged I seem like I'm interrupting something all the time."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Deeks said, "I was just leaving anyway."

Not that Nell believed him she let him walk out

"See you tomorrow!" they both called after him.

~~Later that Night~~

It was around quarter to nine when Nell's phone started ringing; she looked at the caller ID and saw 'Eric Beale' on the screen.

"Hey Eric," Nell said picking up her phone.

"Hey, have you heard back from the exterminators yet?"

"Nope, not a word," Nell said and then just went silent and said nothing for quite some time.

"Are you okay, Nell?" Eric asked taking a more serious tone, "Nell? Are you okay?"

Nell sighed, "I really don't want to have to move, and I haven't heard anything from the exterminators, they said that they would call last week and I still haven't heard anything," she sighed again, "my mother's getting worse and work is just so hectic at the moment, with all the cases and the possibility that I might have to move. It's just a lot of stress at the moment."

"Look, you know I'm here for you," Eric said, his voice full of sympathy.

"Thank you."

"I have to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Nell."

"Bye, Eric."

~~ The Next Afternoon ~~

"Yes- no I understand. Okay. Thank you for letting me know, Bye." Nell hung up and slumped into her chair in OPS, putting her elbows on her desk and leaning her head in her hands. She'd just gotten off the phone with the exterminator company. They told her that she was going to have to move, because the termite problem was worse than they had expected. The residents had a week to claim all of their items from their apartments and move out before they tore the apartment block down.

Eric walked back into OPS a few minutes after Nell got off the phone; his smile immediately vanished when he saw the state that Nell was in.

"Are you okay?" he asked, placing his hand on Nell's shoulder, of which she shrugged off.

"I have to move. The termite problem was worse than they had thought, I have a week to get my stuff before they tear down the entire apartment block," Nell said looking depleted.

"Hey, Nell look you're smart and we can figure this out, I'm sure Kensi won't mind letting you stay at her place for a few more nights and I will help you house hunt on the weekends," Eric offered, sitting at his desk in his chair next to Nell.

"Thank you, but I think that this is something that I need to figure out by myself," Nell said removing her face from her hands and sitting up straight again.

"Okay, but know that I'm here if you need me," Eric said, his voice full of sympathy.

Nell went back to her work and Eric couldn't help but notice the way in which she did her work; with her eyes rapidly scanning the screen through all the Intel for any and all useful information, like she always did but, something was wrong and anybody could see it. Her posture was lacking and she looked as though she hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks. What was Eric going to do to comfort her; it was like she was stone walling him.

~~6:00am- The Next Morning~~

The buzzing of his phone finally pulled him out of a fitful night's sleep.

Eric grumbled to himself as he fumbled around on his bedside table trying to find his phone. When he finally found it he picked it up and read the text message on the screen; it was from Deeks it read:

_Hey, the waves look awesome this morning, pick you up in 20._

It wasn't a question, it was a 'be up and waiting or I'll pick the lock and drag you out there with my bare hands' and Eric didn't want a repeat of the first time Deeks asked him to go surfing. It had been the first time that he and Nell had argued, now that he thought about it, it had just been over a little thing, but Deeks wanted to help the geek of the team so he came over to go surfing even though Eric didn't want to. Never the less Deeks came over with a relentless attitude to get Eric into the waves.

_~~Flashback~~_

_Eric heard Deeks' car pull up in his driveway, he had got the text from Deeks about half an hour ago but was too tired to get out of bed and therefore had stayed there. Admittedly Eric didn't predict that Deeks would pick the lock and then continually make noise that was louder than the kids from next door were when their parties got really out of hand. _

_But that was exactly what he did. He turned on the radio in the lounge room and slowly- so slowly that it was agonising- turned up the radio until it was at maximum volume. He then came and started bashing on Eric's door, which he couldn't really hear over the radio but he could see the door moving. Eventually he moved to the plan of actually infiltrating his room._

_"__The waves are awesome at this time of the day," Deeks started before continuing to coerce Eric out of bed and eventually to the beach._

_~~End of Flashback~~_

So Eric picked the smart option and got out of his bed and in under twenty minutes was waiting outside, sitting in the steps of his veranda with his surf board leaning against the door.

When Deeks turned up it was about 6:30. Deeks' timing didn't surprise him; Deeks was renowned for being late. Deeks got out of his car but kept the engine running as he picked up Eric's surf board and put it in the boot along with his.

Eric climbed in the passenger seat of Deeks' car and put on his seat belt.

"Had to escape from Kensi?" Eric assumed.

"She wants me to help pick flowers for the wedding," Deeks replied.

"At six in the morning?"

"Had to get out before she did. Last night it was all table arrangements, so presumably, flowers is next."

All Eric could do to this was laugh before fading out, "still seems weird."

"What do you mean?" Deeks asked.

"When I first met Kensi she was known as bad-ass Blye, she never really connected with anyone and now she's getting married. It's bizarre. And especially to someone with a completely different personality," Eric concluded.

"Wait, wait. How is my charming personality _completely _different to Kens'?" Deeks asked.

"Well I don't mean that you don't make a good couple, because you do. – and I'm happy for you guys..." Eric trailed off, stumbling over his words before summing up his thoughts with, "opposites attract."

"Anyway, how's it going with Jones?" Deeks asked.

"Do you remember when Kensi came back from Afghanistan?"

"Yeah, of course I do."

"And the fact that we knew she was going through stuff but she could only get through it by herself? What did you do to comfort her?" Eric asked and in seeing the slightly confused look on Deeks' face added, "Nell's got a lot of stress on her with the apartment and other stuff, and she is really upset and I have no idea on how to be there for her but not..." Eric faded characteristically lost for words.

"Smothering, over protective, majorly concerned?" Deeks supplied.

"Not going over the top," Eric replied hesitantly, choosing his words carefully.

"It took Kensi and I- well mostly Kensi, because I was pretty open about my feelings. But anyway it took us a long time to get together, and we were almost there before she got sent to Afghanistan," Deeks explained, "after Afghanistan we had to take three steps back to take one forward, so I tried to be there for her and my first attempts well, let's just say they weren't my finest hour."

"Like the coffee situation on her first day back?" Eric asked.

"That one... And several others," Deeks said fading off at the end, "it took me a while to figure it out but I learned from my several mistakes and came up with a very simple master plan," Deeks said.

"Which was?"

"I gave her space," Deeks answered simply.

"So I should give Nell some space?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, you give her the space she needs until she comes to you and then you give her the comfort she needs," Deeks said whilst pulling into a parking spot, "now let's go and catch some waves before they die down."

Deeks and Eric surfed for about an hour and a half there wasn't a wave good enough to surf in sight. They drove past a coffee shop and they each bought a coffee, before Deeks dropped Eric back at his house.

Over the next few days Eric gave Nell space, he didn't ignore her, but he didn't smother her with attention either. By the end of the fortnight Eric could tell that Nell was less stressed and he silently thanked Deeks for his advice.

It was a Thursday night when Eric heard a knock at his door. He had a feeling he knew who it was but, didn't want to get his hopes up too much. When he opened the door he was happy to have his hopes met when he saw the distinctive red hair that told him he was right.

"To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?" Eric asked in a slightly funny voice, bringing out a smile on Nell's face.

"I just wanted to thank you for giving me space and letting me sort things out by myself," Nell said.

"Not all credit should go to me, I had to get a little advice from a friend," Eric said. Nell smiled again and looked down at her feet when nothing further was said.

"Do you want to come in?" Eric asked.

"No thanks, I haven't slept well in a while and I'm really tired so I should go back to Kensi's and get some sleep," Nell replied.

"Yeah, how's that been going recently?"

"Pretty good actually."

"Okay, but if that does suddenly go south, I'm sure sleeping on the couch won't kill me," Eric said with a slight smile on his face.

"Thank you for understanding," Nell said planting a kiss on Eric's lips.

"Thank you for not yelling at me when I didn't understand," Eric said with a more serious tone.

"Hey, since when have you ever heard me yell," Nell said lightly.

"Well, there's a first time for everything."

At that comment they both laughed a little, before bidding each other farewell and Nell left. Eric watched her drive down his street before he went back inside and returned to his video game.

**A/N- I have a really good plan for my next one-shot and I'm really excited about it, so I hope you all get excited about it as well!**


	5. Chapter 5- Kill House Part 1

**A/N- This is a re-write of the end of Kill House. **

**Please R&R**

**TheAlphabetSong xx**

~~ In Ops ~~

"Has Nell found any evidence on the TRP's camera network?" Callen asked.

"No, I haven't heard from her," Eric answered.

"Well, get her on the phone right now," Granger ordered.

Eric dialled her number and it appeared on the large screen.

As it rang Kensi spoke, "she should've checked in by now."

"Nell, pick up, come on Nell pick up," Deeks said anxiously.

When it finished ringing a message appeared in the screen underneath the number it read: CELLPHONE OFFLINE.

"Her cell phone's offline," Eric stated.

"We left her in the restaurant," Callen said, "what if Inman's guys found her?"

"Then Cesinaros has a chance to acquire something bigger than Intel," Sam said, "a human asset."

"Inman thinks we're a unit assigned to find Cesinaros, if he had a chance to snatch one of our team members.." Callen faded out, fearing the end of the sentence.

Eric spun around in his chair, a look of concern on his face, clearly afraid for Nell's safety.

"You don't think-" he started.

"He's got Nell," Sam confirmed.

~~Outside the Kill House~~

"Escalades, suits, AK's," Sam observed, "fits the profile of the Marlina Cartel."

"If Inman's got Nell he won't let her out of his sight," Callen said.

~~Back in Ops ~~

"He's definitely still in there," Eric confirmed.

"Rodge that," Callen said through comms.

Hetty turned to Granger looking rather angry, "if Miss Jones is harmed in anyway because you let Inman go-"

"I'm not the one who decided to send an Analyst into the field. That's on you," Granger said before Eric interrupted the growing argument.

"GUYS!" Eric said sternly effectively cutting off Granger mid- sentence and having all eyes turned to him, "all that matters now is getting her back safely."

~~The Kill House~~

"We got the Cartel guys plus the 5 TRP's. Remember how they operate; they wait for us to make the obvious choices then they knock us off balance. We're not going to over-power them, we'll out- smart them," Callen informed.

"They'll be expecting us," Deeks added.

"We'll take them quietly," Sam said whispering.

They all got out of the car and closed the doors quietly preparing for their breach on the Kill House. They effectively subdued the Cartel guys standing guard of the Kill House before entering. They split off into two's (Sam with Callen and Kensi with Deeks) and collectively empty most of the rooms, until they got to one where a Cartel guy was standing against the wall as Callen shot at him, the guy dodged and the bullet went through the wall he heard a scream from the other side and someone swear. Sam took care of the guy that dodged Callen's bullet and then they moved into the last room. As they came around the corner Callen shot Inman, and Kensi and Deeks joined them in the room. They all watched Inman fall to the ground- dead, but then there eyes skittered to the other side of the room to a smaller body, lying on the floor looking very unconscious, well at least they all hoped that it was unconscious and not the alternative because the alternative would soon leave them all at NCIS Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones' funeral. It must have been her scream. The thought ran through Callen's head 'did I just kill one of our own?'.

Kensi and Deeks rushed over to Nell's lifeless body. Kensi checked for a pulse and sighed in relief when she felt one, faint, but at least it was there.

"G, when you fired that round that missed and was followed by the scream. You don't think that-" Sam started before being interrupted by Callen answering the unasked question, "yeah, Sam. I think I shot Nell."

"Eric," Kensi called through her comms unit, "we need an ambulance, Nell's been shot."

~~ In Ops ~~

It took Eric a minute to process what Kensi had told him, 'Nell shot' it must not have been too serious because Kensi didn't sound incredible concerned, but then again acting was part of her job. So Eric did his best to suppress his emotions until the case was over. He dialled for an ambulance and then told the team that it was 5 minutes away.

"Your decision to release Inman just got our best Analyst shot," Hetty said accusing Granger.

"It was still your choice to send her into the field," Granger argued.

"Don't you tell me Owen, that you let your trust of Inman cloud your professional judgement, and that you didn't foresee the repercussions of letting him go," Hetty warned.

"Can you stop arguing!" Eric snapped at Hetty and Granger, "Nell just got shot, we play the blame game later."

Granger didn't say anything at Eric's sudden outburst he just turned around and walked out of Ops. Eric then turned his attention to Hetty, he expected that he'd get a lecture but instead Hetty walked over and stood beside him. She turned to face him, when Eric was sitting and Hetty was standing they were eye-level with each other.

"Mr Beale- Eric," Hetty said correcting herself, "I know you and Miss Jones are rather close and that the idea of losing her in reality is far worse than in your imagination. There will be time to cope with it later, but right now I need you to make sure that everything else that is part of this case is wrapped up in a proverbial neat bow."

"Okay, I can do that," Eric said.

"You've done a good job so far Mister Beale, keep on doing it."

So with that Eric turned back to his computer and continued to type away.

~~The Kill House~~

"How long until the ambulance gets here?" Deeks asked, panicking slightly.

"Three minutes," Callen reported back.

"Nell's bleeding out quickly, I'm not sure she has three minutes," Kensi said from her spot where she was crouched over Nell's unconscious body, with her hands pressed over the gunshot wound on Nell's chest. Kensi had blood all over her hands and the red sticky liquid was gushing endlessly through them. Kensi didn't think Nell was going to make it but for the time being she didn't voice her concerns.

It was three minutes that felt like hours because by the time the ambulance got there Nell was fading faster than ever. When they loaded Nell on board Callen offered to go with her, but Kensi ended up going with her because Callen would be more useful explaining how he shot another NCIS employee, let alone another OSP worker. Yeah, that'd be a story to be spoken once and then shoved so very far under the Earth of thoughts no one would find it or unearth it for a very long time because this Op that went bad hit very close to home.

When Kensi and Nell got to the hospital Nell was rushed into surgery, leaving Kensi with nothing to do but sit and wait with nothing to do. Knowing Nell's chances were slim, miracles were rare but not impossible.

About half an hour after Kensi and Nell had arrived, Eric walked into the waiting room. He spotted Kensi and walked over to her taking the seat next to her.

"Heard anything yet?" Eric asked.

"Got here about half an hour ago, Doc's rushed Nell into surgery. Haven't heard anything since," Kensi replied.

"I just hope to- to whoever, whatever's up there that Nell makes it through this alive," Eric said.

"Nell _looks_ like the weakest but in reality it takes a special kind of person to do what we do. Looks can be deceiving and Nell's small size deceives people, don't let them deceive you," Kensi put simply.

"Yeah," Eric said, "I guess I'm just not dealing well with the 'what if she doesn't make it' question very well," Eric admitted.

"I don't think any of us are, I mean even-" Kensi started before a doctor came over to them.

"Are you here for Miss Jones?" She asked.

"Yes," Eric replied, "how is she."

"She went through an extensive surgery and lost a lot of blood. Miss Jones is currently in recovery," She reported.

Eric breathed a sigh of relief, "when can we see her?"

"I'm sorry, but at this time its family only."'

Kensi was clearly irritated at not being able to see her friend so she pulled out her badge, "we're federal agents, one of ours is responsible for her shooting and we need to speak to her," Kensi lied-it was her second nature after all.

The doctor swallowed the lie without a question, "Of course," she said, "if you would follow me."

She lead them down several brightly lit corridors, each one smelling just as sterile as the last; the aroma of it was very over-whelming. They came to stop at a room marked with the numbers 118. Kensi and Eric entered the room, Nell lay there asleep. Eric sat in the chair next to her bed and took her left hand in both of his. Kensi stood on the other side of the room leaning against the wall watching Nell and Eric, she was glad that Nell had made it, because whatever it was that they had, they deserved it.

Not that Kensi believed in someone's subconscious being able to sense the presence of another being, but something must have pulled her out of her heavily sedated comatose state, because she slowly became aware of her surroundings. Nell saw a familiar, loving, smiling face looking down at her.

"Hey Rockstar," Eric said softly, "how are you feeling?"

"In comparison of things okay, I guess," Nell responded drowsily, "although it's probably just the pain meds. How are you feeling?"

"Lucky, because I love the most beautiful girl in the world and even though she got shot she lived, even though she was against all odds, so I am lucky that I still have her with me."

Nell smiled and blushed, "I'm sure she's just as lucky as you are so that she could be here with you," Nell said.

By now they were both smiling, Eric leant over and placed a light kiss on Nell's forehead. Nell let out a yawn, as Kensi's phone started buzzing.

"I'm going to take this, it's Hetty," Kensi said stepping outside the room and answering her phone.

Nell shut her eyes and for a few short minutes was at peace, for a minute she forgot all about her gunshot wound and just relaxed and thought about how happy she was to be alive. She let the feeling of Eric rubbing small circles on the back of her hand lull to sleep, until the million dollar question hit her. She opened her eyes and went to sit bolt upright only to feel a sharp pain in her chest and returning to her position of lying down.

"You okay?" Eric asked Nell.

"Yeah, I just thought, who shot me?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" Eric asked, not wanting to cause any tension between the team.

"Was it one of the TRP's?" Nell asked, and then Eric remembered that Nell didn't know that she was a victim of accidental friendly fire.

"No it was-" Eric started, "it wasn't a TRP-" no that didn't sound right either.

"Eric?" Nell asked, "what are you trying to say?"

"You were a victim of accidental friendly fire," Eric said slowly.

"Friendly fire?" Nell asked astonished, that was _not _the answer she was expecting, "so another NCIS agent shot me?" she guessed again.

"It was another member of our team," Eric stated.

"Who?" Nell asked a little more forcefully.

"Okay, don't kill the messenger," Eric said, as a pre-warning.

"Who was it Eric?"

"It- it was Callen," Eric said watching as the realisation set in, "he shot at a guy and they dodged, the bullet went straight through the wall."

"The walls in the Kill House are paper thin; I cannot believe they didn't calculate that it wouldn't take much to turn them into Swiss cheese," Nell said in a quiet outrage before she broke into tears. Eric got off his chair and sat next to Nell on her hospital bed, putting a comforting arm around her. Nell leaned her head onto Eric's shoulder and her tears started coming harder and faster. Even longer after the tears had stopped they stayed there frozen, it was already late when Eric and Kensi had made their way to the hospital so in the early hours of the morning Eric finally fell asleep even though Nell had drifted off hours before.

At some point in time when Eric was still awake he saw Kensi look into the door before seeing the situation and leaving, with a curt nod to Eric.

They slept undisturbed and happy despite the situation until around 6 am when Eric was woken rather abruptly with a 'good morning, Mister Beale', from Hetty. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before fumbling with his glasses, putting them on and trying to climb off Nell's bed without waking her up because even though it was 6 o'clock in the morning and he'd gotten about five hours of sleep, Nell needed as much sleep as she could get to recover from her wound. As he clambered off the bed he noticed that Hetty had left and was waiting outside, he let go of Nell's hand in which he had been holding all night. When he tried to let go of Nell's hand she grumbled and in her half awake state didn't let him go.

"Hey, Nell you should go back to sleep," Eric whispered running a hand over Nell's head, smoothing down her bed head.

"Do you have to go?" She asked.

"Hetty came to get me so, I'm sorry but I have to go," he replied as she finally let him let go of her hand, he started to walk towards the door but was stopped by the next words that left Nell's mouth.

"I love you Eric," she said.

"I love you too, Nell," he replied, with his classic smile on his face. With that Eric continued walking out the door to meet Hetty on the other side and letting her explain why she came and woke him up.

Later that night Eric was headed home to have a shower before going back to the hospital to remain by Nell's side until she was back on her feet again. When he got back to his apartment, he was exhausted from no sleep and then having to work the case without having Nell in Ops. It was during the day that he remembered how much work he had to do in the time before Nell worked for NCIS; for a short while he would occasionally have Dom to help but Eric was still left with a pretty hefty case load. It was during the day that he respected Nell's job even more than he already did- if that was possible, was it? He was too tired to decide, so instead he went to have a nice hot, peaceful shower hoping to wash not only the salt from his hair, the only remnants of his surf the morning of the Kill House incident but some of the stress and pressure of the day just ending. Within twenty minutes of getting home he was showered and ready to go back out, to see Nell.

He walked past reception and down the corridors lit by fluorescent lights which were reflecting off the white walls and that combined with exhaustion was making his eyes hurt. The lights were so bright he almost missed her room; he noticed this when he checked to see what room number he was up to and saw the numbers '_121_' on a door. So he turned around and found Nell's room; he cautiously opened the door making sure not to wake her if she was asleep. He entered to find that she was indeed asleep and so he sat in the same chair that he had the previous night and slowly dozed off.

He was awoken sometime near sunrise by a cough from Nell as she tried sit up but seemed to be having difficulty, presumably from her gunshot wound, so before she noticed Eric was awake she laid back down.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Eric asked leaning closer to Nell.

"My shoulder's sore," Nell said, "it was fine until someone came and changed the dressing, earlier this morning, a few hours after you left with Hetty."

"I'm sorry you know I would've stayed, but Hetty had a case," Eric explained.

"Yeah, I know."

When Nell next attempted to get into a sitting position Eric stood and helped her sit up. He noticed that her bandage had a patch of red on it.

"You're bleeding," Eric stated.

"Hmm?" Nell asked.

"You're shoulder's bleeding," Eric said again, responding to Nell's question.

"Yeah, the nurse said that it might bleed a little but that I should get someone if it starts to bleed too much."

"Well it's bleeding more than a little," Eric said looking at the cloth of white material that was becoming more blood soaked by the second.

Nell turned her head to her gunshot wound, "that's bleeding more than it was yesterday," she said before launching into a coughing fit, of which produced more red blood to quickly seep through the cloth.

"Nell, I think you should get someone," Eric said his tone growing greatly in concern.

As she started another coughing fit she nodded her head, she also saw that she'd started coughing up blood, and thick amounts of it too. In seeing this she hit the call button on the wall near her bed.

The doctors came rushing in and she didn't stop coughing, they pulled the dressing off to find that it had been infected and the stiches had pulled apart because of all the coughing. One of the nurses came over and asked Eric to leave the room so knowing one way or another he was leaving the room he decided to give the professionals room to do their work. He couldn't watch, so he found his way to the waiting room and sat.

Nell's medical papers would read:

_'__Nell Jones-_

_Time of Death: 5:48 am_

_Cause of Death: Infected gunshot wound and profuse bleeding.'_

**A/N- Don't kill me for what I did, but I promise that the next one-shot (Part 2) will see some resolve.**


	6. Chapter 6- Kill House Part 2

Kill House- Part 2

**A/N- Thanks so very much to everyone who reviewed my last part especially to ****_fanficforyou _****your review was really heart warming and it reminded me why I love writing fanfiction and push myself to get the next one-shot/chapter up as quickly as I can, So please I encourage people to review my stories. **

**In case no one catches on, everything in italics is flashbacks or memories.**

**TheAlphabetSong xx**

None of the team ever thought that would be what they were reading when they came into the office the next morning. Everyone except Eric; who when the nurse told him what happened he drove home, not to the beach, not to the office, but home. He unlocked the door to his apartment and slumped on his couch, having no idea how what happened in the last hours did. He took some time to process the information. As he sat there thinking; slumped on his couch; the world kept on spinning. His conscious didn't think it would because she meant the world to him but somewhere his subconscious knew that due to the laws of physics that it would continue spinning.

Eric wanted to go into the office because he knew he needed to be around friends and people to support him, but he knew that there were way too many ghosts and good memories that in his current state were too bad to outweigh the good. All the moments that he and Nell shared together, so many of them had happened in that one building.

The day that Deeks had his 'Doppelganger Aquarium' epiphany was a memorable one.

_Deeks explained the idea for his aquarium to the team whilst waiting for the telltale sign of a case from Eric's whistle._

_"__The armoured catfish- that's you Sam; strong, silent, doesn't take crap from any of the other fish," he said gaining a small smile of appreciation from Sam, "Kensilina, Angelfish. Look how it glides all sexy through the water."_

_"__I like my fish," Kensi said._

_"__Yeah, your fish likes my fish," Deeks replied before continuing, "Next is the Gourami Kissing Fish, that's Eric and Nell. And Callen, this is you," he said motioning to a fish away from the rest of them, "black ghost knife fish. It's sleek, sharp, mysterious, solitary."_

_Later that day when Eric and Nell were in Ops, Eric asked the question that had been bugging him all day._

_"__Sooooo, our fish, what do you think? You know that they're kissing fish," Eric asked._

_"__Yeah, um. I actually did some research," Nell answered._

_"__You did?" Eric asked._

_"__You know when they're rocking their lips together and it looks like they're kissing?" Nell asked making sure they were on the same page._

_"__Yeah," Eric replied, with anticipation. _

_"__They're not."_

_"__Oh," Eric said, surprised._

_"__They're actually fighting."_

_"__Fighting?" Eric asked slightly disappointed._

That was one of the great things about Nell, the fact that for so long she avoided questions relating to her feeling towards him with wit and intellect. She always found an excuse and one time it just happened to be mistletoe.

_The rest of the team were all stuck out at sea until they could get a flight back onto land, except the earliest flight that they could get back left on the 27__th__ of December. Therefore that left only Nell and Eric, because even Hetty had disappeared, like the little Ninja that she is. Nell had coerced Eric into coming with her to her Christmas Charity thing that she was doing for the Marine Corps. He had even agreed to wear an Elf Hat... And in the end the entire Elf costume. When he was about to leave the office Nell walked in. _

_Eric heard the jingle of bells from behind him which caused him to turn around. Standing there in front of him was Nell dressed in an Elf costume and she was rocking it. Of course Eric kept his mouth shut, well partially because all he did let a tiny comment escape._

_"__Whoa!" Eric said before becoming stuck for words, "you look..."_

_"__Elvin?" Nell offered._

_"__Elfin' amazing," Eric said finalizing his choice of words, "I don't know what to say," he finished walking towards Nell._

_"__Well I believe the traditional greeting is Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays if you're feeling, with regret," Nell said walking to meet Eric halfway._

_He nodded slightly in recognition but was cut off from saying anything else when Nell wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss; it was soft, sweet and unfortunately short. When they broke apart Eric could only think of the most pathetic phrase._

_"__What... Was... That?" he said slowly dragging out each word._

_Nell said nothing but looked up at the conveniently placed mistletoe._

That was one of the most painful memories to relive for Eric; knowing that there would never be anything like that to happen again. All of these wonderful memories would never have existed if Nell had never joined NCIS and if they had never figured out their issues.

From all of these memories the one that pained Eric to think of came down to one day- the day of their first case. When Eric first saw her unmistakable red hair, he thought that she was just another analyst that he would occasionally hand a file over too. It wasn't until Hetty informed him that they would be working closely that he noticed how irritating she was, that day was the day of their first case together. Back then on that day he could've made a list as long as her IQ of all the things that she did that irritated him, but then again at that point in time he didn't know that she had a very high IQ.

She kept constantly finishing his sentences and showing off her intelligence, plus several other things or 'personality flaws' as she called them.

_Eric took off his glasses and looked down at his keyboard, 'could she be any more irritating?' He thought._

_"Do we have a problem?" Nell asked._

_"I wouldn't call it a problem- more like a situation. Maybe a problem," Eric concluded._

_"Because I'm new?" Nell asked._

_"No because you-"_

_"Finish your sentences?" Nell asked._

_"Yeah," Eric replied dragging out the end of the word._

_"It has to do with me being a type A with borderline ADD, control issues with men I admire; something I'm aware of, working on and hope one day to have some control over," Nell said._

_Eric barely caught the end of the explanation still processing the first half specifically the 'control issues with men I admire' part._

_"You admire me?" Eric asked._

_Nell looked from Eric to his computer screen completely ignoring his question. 'Maybe she didn't hear it' he thought._

_"Stop," Nell said before clarifying, "stop the tape."_

_Eric turned to his screen and put his glasses back on before rewinding the tape._

_"Whoever cut off Corporal Porter's hand-" he dropped off waiting for Nell to finish his sentence._

_"Wanted what was in that briefcase," she finished._

All of these memories were all special and Eric hoped that one day somewhere in the future he could look back to these and not being on the brink of tears and instead smiling at the fact that they did get those times together.

When Eric ended his trip down memory lane he found himself with a few tears rolling down his face, but wiped them off of his face angrily. He was determined not to cry- even in the privacy of his own apartment. So he sat there on his couch unmoved staring into despair, wondering how on Earth he was going to get through the next months or how he would return to work, with all of the memories waiting to be unearthed. He wondered how Hetty would tell Nell's parents; he wondered how she told Dom's parents; he wondered whether Nell's mum or dad would pick up the phone and whether if it was her mum, if she would cry as soon as Hetty told her, or if it were her dad, what his reaction would be.

It was all too much to think about. He needed to do something to take his mind off everything and the next thing he knew he was in his car outside the office. Why was he here? He was sure that he'd decided that there were too many good memories here to come back yet. He tried to get out of his car several times but he couldn't bring himself to enter the building, he just kept thinking of all the memories inside there.

_"__Tungsten," Eric said completely out of the blue._

_"__What's up?" Nell asked._

_"__My favourite element it's Tungsten, number 74 on the periodic table, formerly known as Wolfram."_

_"__Okay," Nell replied._

_"__It's got the highest melting point and in tensile strength of any metal," he continued._

_"__Umm, that's nice," Nell said wondering why it was relevant. _

_"__So, come on. What's your favourite element?" Eric asked spinning around in his chair to face Nell who was leaning on the big table in the middle of Ops._

_"__Do you use this line at the Genius bar?" Nell wittily replied._

_"__No. I just thought that you- Never mind."_

_Again Nell had shut Eric out so assuming that it was the end of the conversation he turned back around to his computer but he still heard Nell re-thought reply._

_"__Ununoctium."_

_"__What?" Eric asked._

_"__That's my favourite element."_

_"__That's the stuff they mined in Pandora in Avatar."_

_"__No that's Unuctanium; this is Ununoctium its element 118."_

_"__There is no element 118," Eric said spinning around in his chair._

_"__A laboratory in Russia produced one atom in 2002, 2 in 2005. It's quite rare," Nell explained._

_"__Sorry, I must've missed that issue of the periodic times."_

_And to that Nell had no remark._

At that time in his space of mind he couldn't face the workplace so he drove home, but he still couldn't rid his mind of all the memories.

_The new Assistant Director; Owen Granger had decided to send Nell out into the field. She was undercover at a Think Tank organisation called Brendal Research and Eric did not particularly like one of the other workers. There was nothing suspicious about him; it was the fact that he was constantly flirting with Nell that was getting on his nerves._

_There was knock on Nell's office door._

_"__Oh shoot, someone's at my door," Nell said to Eric who was listening over the comms unit before walking over and opening the door. _

_As she opened it she saw a man standing holding a box type object._

_"__Hi," Nell said._

_"__Hi, I don't mean to bother you, I just saw you come in and I wanted to say 'hello' and 'welcome'," the guy said._

_"__Hello and thank you," Nell replied, before adding, "come on in."_

_"__Thanks," he replied._

_Soooo, you're..." she trailed off waiting for him to fill in his name._

_"__I'm JT everybody calls me Thruster."_

_"__Right."_

_"__It was my call sign. I was a fighter pilot until I had to punch out over Falluja; detached my retina. Now I'm flying at a desk," JT said finishing his explanation._

_Nell heard Eric comment through her earwig, "Oh brother."_

_"__So you're replacing Brent?" JT asked changing the topic._

_"__Is it true he died?" Nell asked._

_"__Yeah, they say he shot himself."_

_"__So suicide?" Nell assumed._

_"__Spousicide is more likely; him and his wife Mia both worked here; they fought so much that they were never allowed on the same projects."_

_"__Really."_

_"__Yeah."_

_"__Such a gossip," Eric commented to Nell, "his call sign should have been Yenta." Nell had to suppress a smile to this comment._

_"__So this is for you," JT said indicating to the box in his hands._

_"__For me?" _

_"__This should help you get up to speed on all our current projects," He said putting the box on Nell's desk._

_"__All right, well thanks."_

_"__And his fly's open," Eric said._

_Almost as if on cue JT noticed and laughed nervously before walking out of Nell's office. _

_When the door was closed Nell said to Eric, "What are you 8?"_

_Later Eric was in Ops and noticed on Nell's button camera that JT had approached again. _

_"__Oh, look, Top Goon's back," Eric commented to himself._

_"__You're a fast reader," JT commented to the fact that she was filing several files._

_"__I skimmed," Nell admitted._

_"__You know, we usually let the newbie's get settled for a couple days, but there's a brainstorming session on the European financial crisis at two-thirty if you want to sit in."_

_"__Sure," Nell answered._

_"__In the meantime, I'm going to grab a sandwich in the park, if you wanted to join me for lunch."_

_"__Yeah, I don't think so," Eric advised Nell._

_She ignored Eric's advice, "okay," she agreed._

_"__What?" Eric asked surprised and slightly jealous, "he could be a serial killer for all you know."_

_Nell was tired of Eric's constant running commentary in her ear so she rubbed her earwig sending feedback down the line. Eric cried out at the noise, and was clearly irritated._

_"__You okay?" JT asked Nell noticing that she was rubbing her ear._

_"__Yeah, I just have this buzzing in my ear," she replied._

_"__This is so going in my operations report," Eric said._

"Ahhh," Eric cried out wishing that the memories would stop plaguing his mind, yet he knew that the advice that he'd give someone in this situation would be _instead of beating yourself up over the fact that they're gone, relish in the times that you spent together, and enjoy the memories before they fade._

One Week Later

Earlier in the week Eric had for probably the only time in his life switched his phone off when he started getting calls from almost everybody in the team; which meant that Hetty's arrival at his front door was unexpected.

He clambered off his couch which had been his refuge for the past week only getting up when he had to find some food; and opened the door, surprised to find one Miss Henrietta Lange standing on his doorstep.

"Ah, um Hetty," Eric said stumbling for words, "what, umm, what are you doing here?"

"I came to see how you were feeling, apparently, according to the others you have been rather radio silent," Hetty explained.

"I turned my phone off," he put simply.

"Because you wanted to be alone?"

"No, it's just, I don't- the more happy memories I unearth the more reality hits and the more difficult it is to try and process and understand everything," Eric said walking back in to sit on his couch, not really caring whether Hetty walked in behind him or not, but his unasked question was answered when he heard his door close.

"What you are going through is normal, given the situation. I understand that you have great feelings for Nell and are going through a process called grieving."

"I know what grieving is. Does it get any easier?"

"Nell's death has taken a toll on all of us it's not the same without her, but over a great deal of time it will get easier but, I hate to say that you will probably always miss her. But anyway what I came here to tell you was that her funeral is tomorrow afternoon and you are wanted their by Miss Jones' parents."

This made Eric slightly confused; he'd only met her parents once very briefly so why was he invited to her funeral.

"Why?"

"I don't know the specifics but when I made the call to tell her parents her father told me that you and the rest of the team are to attend her funeral, I believe even Assistant Director Granger is planning on making an appearance."

"An appearance? That's all, he's the one who let Inman go, he's the one that got Nell killed," he said with his temper as long as the River Nile quickly fraying.

"Mister Beale, this is his fault as much as it is mine. I was the one who sent her into the field. It's my fault as much as it is Mister Callen's because he was the one who shot her. But nobody's playing the blame game, Nell knew the risks of going out into the field," Hetty explained with her trademark calm and reassuring voice.

"What time in the afternoon?" Eric asked.

"2:30 and you better be there," Hetty said, "I'll let myself out and you can get back to doing- whatever you were doing," Hetty said as she left.

"Thank you Hetty."

She nodded as she walked out.

~~ 2:15- The Funeral ~~

As Eric walked through the cemetery and approached the small chapel he spotted Kensi and Deeks standing talking to Callen and Sam but his eyes skimmed them over noticing the couple grieving in the corner. He caught the man's eye and knew immediately that the couple were Nell's parents.

He quickened his walking pace heading in their direction.

"It's Eric isn't it?" her father asked.

"Yes," Eric confirmed with a swift nod of his head, "my condolences, and if you don't mind me asking, why did I get an invitation?"

This time Nell's mother spoke up, "last time we saw you, well a twelve year old could tell that you and Nell cared for the other very much so we thought that you would appreciate being here and the other reason, in recent years she has- had," she said slowly correcting herself trying so hard to keep herself from falling apart, "been working so hard that you and your co-workers know her better than we do- " she took a deep breath before again correcting herself, "did," before she crumbled into her husband.

"I think we should make our way inside to prepare before the ceremony begins," her father said, "please excuse us."

Eric let them go and went to where the rest of the team was standing.

"Hi," Kensi said as Eric walked over to them.

"Hey," he returned dismally.

"Hetty resigned- again," Callen stated.

"What's that three, no wait four times now," Deeks said.

"I wonder how long that it'll last this time?" Sam pondered aloud.

This comment surprisingly produced a small smile from everyone in the group.

Although all further conversation was stopped when the funeral director stepped out of the Chapel and called everyone's attention to him.

"The family is ready to begin, if everyone would step inside and take a seat quickly and quietly we will be able to do so."

With that everyone moved inside and took a seat as instructed. Hetty found her way to the same set of seats as the rest of the team just as the proceedings were beginning. There wasn't a big crowd and only 5 people spoke including the funeral director himself: her mother, her father, her brother and one other person.

"I now invite one of Nell's co-workers Miss Henrietta Lange to speak," the funeral director said.

"Hetty rose from her seat and walked down the aisle taking place behind the microphone, before speaking she had to tilt the microphone down quite some way because the last person talking had been quite a lot taller than Hetty was.

"For all of you who don't know Nell worked as an Intelligence Analyst for the Office of Special Projects which is a division of NCIS. She was one of the most dedicated employees I ever had the pleasure of mentoring. Nell joined our team two years ago, and has worked alongside Eric Beale our technical operator looking at the technical side of the cases. I remember in Nell's first week with us she discovered my fondness for exotic teas, she very bravely presented me with one that to this day I still have in my possession in its wrapping.

As all of you know every job has its demands and this one requires spending a lot of time away from your family, at NCIS you trust your partner with your life and develop a tight friendship with your team and co-workers, they become almost like a second family. When Nell joined our team we welcomed her into our family with open arms. For the time she worked with NCIS she did more than her fair share of work and she will be sorely missed. My condolences to her family," Hetty concluded.

She walked back down the aisle to sit in her seat.

"Good speech," Callen whispered to Hetty.

'_Good Speech' _Eric thought. That speech did not do Nell enough justice; although in Eric's opinion it would be almost impossible to do so in any amount of words. Eric knew Nell was gone, but he knew that she would truly know how special she was to him, because for one of the first times in Eric's life he'd worn long pants and a suit, and he'd worn them just for her.

**A/N- I apologise to all the people who thought that Nell was still alive and that it was some bizarre plot to keep her safe. And in case anyone forgot I did say in the author's note of my first one-shot that all of the one-shots are unrelated and therefore Nell will be back in the next one and I promise some Christmas Neric fluff. I promise that I won't kill any characters off again.**

**PLEASE Review.**


	7. Chapter 7- Three Years Since

Young Geek Love- Three Years Since

**A/N- As I promise there is Neric fluff in this one-shot, it is set Christmas Eve around what would be in the show's time frame about season 7. Kensi and Deeks have been married for almost half- a- year, and Nell and Eric are living together.**

**When summer gets here my family and I always do a lot of gardening and we have started taking extra care of our plants. So my mum has started naming our plants, we've had plants called: Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Manzo. We had a two ferns both that we've had for a while but we've only recently named them. The larger one we named Kensi and the other Deeks because my mum ships Densi and recently last weekend we got a small plant with tiny white flowers and called it Nell. I don't know how long it'll be until we get another plant but I really want to call it Eric, but it could take some convincing to getmy mum in on it.**

**Sorry for the long note please keep reading ****J**

"I hope that some of that is mine," Eric joked as he dumped his keys on the bench, referring to the bacon and eggs that Nell was cooking.

"Yes, there's enough for you," Nell responded as he appeared behind her wrapping his arms around her waist and placing a wet, slightly salty kiss on her cheek.

"You know there is this wonderful invention called a towel," Nell said, "It means you don't drip salty beach water on the new carpet."

"Okay, well I'm going to have a shower, and make sure the bacon's off the pan by the time I get out," Eric said, but then saw Nell's face when she turned around and he realised how demanding that sounded, "I mean so that you don't burn it- not that you would burn it- because it's not like you can't cook like Kensi."

"Well if I don't cook like Kensi who do I cook like?" Nell asked trying again to trip up Eric.

"You cook like... you cook like my lovely girlfriend that you are," He responded.

As Eric walked away Nell turned back to her cooking. To Eric's previous comment she had a thousand watt smile that spread filling her face. She had spent so long waiting to hear it and even after dating for almost a year and a half and living together for almost two months she still hadn't gotten used to Eric referring to her as his girlfriend.

As Eric retreated to the bathroom he started thinking about his surf with Deeks and the advice that he had given him in answer to his query.

~~Earlier this Morning~~

Eric got out of their bed careful not to wake Nell at six in the morning, she knew he and Deeks were going surfing, but it still didn't stop her from being a little grumpy if he woke her so early in the morning. He went into the bathroom to where his where his slightly wet, wetsuit hung. He met Deeks at the beach at around six-thirty. When Deeks arrived Eric waved him over to where he was sitting; watching the waves pull back into the ocean taking at its mercy a lonely piece of driftwood with them. But that was probably the most exciting thing on the beach because the waves themselves were pretty melancholy.

"Really, why didn't you tell me not to bother coming once you saw the waves- or lack of?" Deeks asked.

"Your idea," Eric replied, "and they're not too bad down the other end."

"So I guess you purposely parked so far away from the waves so that we'd have to walk, which means conversation, so ask your question Beale," Deeks said.

"Well it wasn't purposeful, it just worked out to my advantage," Eric admitted.

"So," Deeks said as they started walking, "what's your question Beale?" There was no response so Deeks tried again with a different approach, "what? You've been asked to go on _'Beauty and the Geek' _and you're not sure how to tell Nell?" He guessed sarcastically.

"No, I've been thinking about ... Proposing," Eric said with hesitation before the last word left his mouth.

"Proposing what?" Deeks asked; messing with Eric, "Do you want to sleep on the other side of the bed because-" Deeks started before Eric cut him off.

"No," he said slightly irritated.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Deeks said trying to stifle small amounts of laughter, before composing himself.

"Look I finally have Nell and I don't want to let her go, I want to make it more official, more permanent."

"Ah, marriage; look don't come to me for advice. Just because I'm married doesn't make me an expert," Deeks warned.

"Well, how did you get the words out in the first place, how did you ask Kens the question, without worrying about rejection at the same time?"

"Seriously, who could resist this?" Deeks asked charismatically, but he knew that wasn't what Eric had meant, or the answer he wanted, so Deeks rethought his answer, "Honestly? I pushed it as far out of my mind as I could. Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of wild, insane courage to get the words out. Remember my proposal?"

"Yeah, you stood in her parking spot with a sign that said 'Marry me Kensi'," Eric responded.

"There were a billion and one thoughts going through my head whilst I waited for her to arrive. You would think that when she got there I would've been more nervous, I wasn't. As soon as I saw Kens that was all the courage I needed."

"Okay, well thanks," Eric said as Deeks finished his explanation.

"And by the way you were right. The waves are much better down this end of the beach," Deeks said

Eric was walking back out of the bathroom freshly showered when he smelt the bacon and eggs. He found a plate of bacon and eggs awaiting him on the bench where he'd but his keys earlier. He could hear movement and noise in their bedroom and could easily tell that it was Nell getting ready. By this time he'd normally be in there too trying to find his keys, wallet or another inanimate object; today though he'd packed his bag before he'd gone surfing.

When Eric finished and put his plate in the sink as Nell came out ready to go.

"You ready to go?" she asked.

"Shoes and bag," he replied as he went to get the aforementioned items and under five minutes they were in Eric's car and on the way to work.

The reason that Eric wasn't packing his bag at the same time Nell was getting her belongings together was the fact there was a certain item in a certain form of packaging that would've raised interesting questions that Eric didn't have lies for and Eric could not let Nell ask those questions. There were reasons that Eric had, had that conversation with Deeks that morning. Now all Eric had to do was make it through the day and that would be the real challenge. He was glad though that he hadn't told Deeks he was planning on proposing tonight because he would then be trying to trip him up all day, as if he wasn't under enough pressure already.

"So, how was your surf with Deeks this morning?" Nell asked pulling Eric back to reality.

"It was good, Deeks caught this awesome barrel until it started to collapse on him. He was under for a while but he was fine although he'll probably have a dramatic story about," Eric replied.

"Sounds like fun," Nell replied.

"It was, until Deeks started complaining about Kensi and how she makes their bed. Can you believe that she'll put only to doona on and doesn't bother with the sheets?"

"So, you guys talk about Kensi?" Nell asked.

"Well yeah, sometimes."

"Do you talk about me?"

"No, why would we talk about you- no it's not like we wouldn't talk about you... when you're related to the topic of discussion."

"Ahhh," Nell responded.

Eric and Nell were sitting in Ops not doing much except talking because it was close to Christmas there weren't many active cases and the ones that were active didn't concern them. So they were both thankful when Hetty walked into Ops to inform them that they had a case.

"Go round up the team," Nell said to Eric as Hetty handed her a case file.

Nell flicked through the file whilst Eric left Ops, he walked out the doors and alerted the team to the case on deck with his telltale whistle that everyone in Ops heard.

Minutes later the rest of the team entered followed by Eric.

"Miss Jones," Hetty said indicating for Nell to start.

"We have a hostage situation in downtown LA. This morning a group of men who we believe to be known terrorists came into an office building and took ten hostages," Nell reported.

"All CCTV cameras and phone lines have been cut off; no access to anyone on the inside," Eric added.

"LAPD is on the scene with a SWAT team as we speak, trying to find some way to contact the captors on the inside to negotiate a hostage release," Nell said.

"Wait, hold on, how did the US not know they were here?" Deeks asked.

"Because they probably came here illegally," Callen answered.

"Correctomoundo," Eric said, "they smuggled themselves into a cargo ship. It got into LA last Thursday."

"Do you know where the ship came from?" Kensi asked.

"Three weeks ago it left from a port in Japan," Eric replied.

"It then stopped in Papa New Guinea, followed by Perth, then Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, South Africa, then Liberia where we believe they bordered before it made two more stops in Rio, then Haiti before the last one of which was the Port of Los Angeles," Nell finished.

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to get them into the country," Callen observed.

"And now they've taken hostages at an office building," Sam said, 'the question is why."

"I want all of you Mr Callen, Mr Hanna, Mr and Mrs Deeks to join LAPD at the office," Hetty requested.

"Address is on your phones," Eric said.

"Mr Beale, Miss Jones I want eyes inside that office."

"We're on it," Eric replied as everyone exited from Ops and headed to their designated places, to do their designated jobs.

When they all arrived at the office block Callen took the lead and headed over to the LAPD officer who he assumed was in charge because he was holding a megaphone trying to negotiate with the terrorists on the inside.

Callen and Sam approached and pulled their badges out.

"Special agent Callen, this is special agents Sam Hanna and Kensi Deeks," Callen said and Kensi and Sam shook the officer's hand, "this is-"

"Detective Marty Deeks, Yeah I know. I'm Chief Officer Aaron Bartley, Deeks and I worked a few cases together before I was promoted, good to see you again," he said.

"You too," Deeks said.

"So are you two together or is it a coincidence that you share the same last name?" Bartley asked indicating at Kensi and Deeks.

"Married actually, 4 months," Kensi replied.

"Congratulations," Bartley replied.

"Thanks," Deeks replied.

"Any way do we know anything about the hostage takers inside?" Callen asked.

"There are three terrorists inside and have taken ten hostages. They are all known to have links to the Taliban," Bartley reported pausing when Callen's phone rang.

"It's Ops," he said and excused himself from the conversation.

"Callen," he said answering his phone.

"I managed to get access into the office using the webcams on the computers and we managed to identify our terrorist trio. We have Samhal Katuzi, Maknki Lebski and Zakaia Nobi, and they all have ties to the Taliban," Eric reported.

"Yeah, thanks Eric."

"There's more; I looked into their bank accounts, they have all recently had fifteen thousand dollars deposited into their bank accounts. I did some digging and I found out where the money came from," Eric started.

"It comes from a business called Local and Far, they do travel documents, Passport photos, Itineraries, basically any documents that you need for travelling," Nell finished letting Eric continue.

"At first looks it's a legit company," he said.

"But then when you started looking into not so much," Callen guessed.

"Bingo," Eric said.

"We still aren't quite sure what they are exactly but we will keep you informed," Nell said.

"Okay, thanks," Callen said walking back over to join the others.

"Eric and Nell got names for the three inside; Samhal Katzui, Maknki Lebski and Zakaia Nobi. Recently they all had fifteen thousand dollars deposited into their bank accounts from a business called Local and Far, on the outside it's a legit company but according to Eric and Nell there's something very shady going on but they're not quite sure what it is at the moment. They said they'd keep us informed."

"Okay, but do we have anything on these guys?" Sam asked.

"Not except for their connection to the Taliban," Callen replied.

"Why this office, what's so important about it?" Kensi asked.

"An even better question would be what do they want," Deeks stated.

"Well it's in the middle of downtown LA and right around the corner is a newspaper company," Officer Bartley suggested.

"Big press, the perfect way to get a message across," Callen said.

"A story like this; it'll spread like wild fire," Deeks said.

Another officer came over to speak to Officer Bartley.

"Sir, we've got one of them on the phone," he said handing the phone in his hand over to Officer Bartley. He gladly accepted and put it to his ear.

"This is Chief Officer Bartley of the Los Angeles Police Department," he said.

"My name is Samhal Katuzi," he spoke with a thick Arabic accent, "and you have something that I want. Her name is Azmal Katuzi, you have five hours to bring her to me in a car with tinted windows and one million American dollars or I will start shooting hostages. Starting with your wife, Bartley," he finished before disconnecting the call.

"What did he say?" Deeks asked.

"He says that we have five hours to bring them a woman named Azmal Katuzi, he also wants a car with tinted windows and one million dollars," Bartley reported.

"Okay, anything else?" Callen asked.

"Yeah, he says if he doesn't get what he wants he's going to start killing hostages, starting with my wife."

That ended up being a very eventful day and for part of it Eric forgot about his plans for the evening and when he remembered he almost whacked himself for it. Honestly how could he forget; it was potentially one the most pivotal moment in their lives and he'd forgotten. Although he was thankful for the distraction to calm his ever growing nerves which he was thankful that he'd been able to mostly hide all day.

That said when the moment came he almost froze.

Everyone was packing up to leave and so were Nell and Eric as they walked out of Ops. When they passed the bullpen Eric gave Deeks a glance that said 'here goes nothing' although he knew that he had plenty to lose if this went badly.

He grabbed Nell's arm as they reached the arch way where three years ago a piece of mistletoe had hung and they had shared their first kiss.

"What's up?" Nell asked as she stopped and turned to face Eric.

This was it now or never, Eric told himself.

"I was just thinking, about this time three years ago," Eric responded.

"Definitely a memorable occasion."

"Do you think we'd be where we are today if that hadn't happened?" he asked completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched very closely by the team sitting in the bullpen, although only Deeks- and probably Hetty because she knows all- knew what exactly was going on, "at this stage?" he continued.

"And what stage would that be exactly?" Nell asked.

Eric looked into her hazel eyes that he loved so much and found all the courage he was searching for and before he thought about what he was doing exactly he bent down on one knee and pulled out a velvet box that held one beautiful ring for one beautiful and lucky lady.

He flipped the box open.

"Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me and I want you in my life," Eric started as the team started moving from their seats to get a better look at the scene before them, "when you first came in I actually hoped that because you were an analyst, Hetty wouldn't keep you around for long, but that was my old self, and I can't see my new self without you because you're part of it. So this Nell Therese Jones is my proposal to you. Marry me," Eric finished.

Nell was starting to cry but it was there was they were absolutely tears of joy because she was smiling like crazy and nodding her head trying to get the words out.

"Yes Wolfram. Yes a thousand times yes!" she exclaimed.

So happy at the fact that he hadn't been rejected Eric gently reached for Nell's hand and slipped the gorgeous diamond ring onto her finger before he stood up.

Nell looked at the ring admiring it; the diamond was small and dainty; perfect.

Eric drew Nell into a hug. They had completely forgotten that they had an audience and so when Hetty came over to speak to them it took them by surprise.

"Miss Jones, Mr Beale," she said, "I believe you are missing something," and she produced a piece of mistletoe from behind her back and held it up in the air making her best attempts to hold it above their heads so Sam came and lifted Hetty up so that she could pin the mistletoe above their heads. Once it was secured on the arch way Sam placed Hetty back on the ground and Nell and Eric caring not for their audience pulled each other into a kiss that showed their undeniable love from each other. When they pulled apart there were cheers and shouts of congratulations from everyone.

It was like a scene from a book and they wouldn't have it any other way.

**A/N- Please review it means a lot to me when you do and a massive shout out to my mum for helping me decide how Deeks proposed to Kensi and to my best friend for jokingly suggesting that at the end someone should hold up Hetty to pin up the mistletoe like the scene from the beginning of the Lion King but I decided it was a good idea and twisted it into something I could use.**

**TheAlphabetSong xx**


	8. Chapter 8- Secret Hobby

**A/N- Please excuse the hastags in random places on the app I write with on my tablet you use hastags to makethings bold.**

**Please enjoy reading this and please leave a review I really love the reviews and thanks to everyone who read my last chapter**

** and commented things like 'that was the perfect proposal' or 'I loved Hetty with the mistletoe' or people who overall just said that they love the variety of each one-shot. It makes me really happy when I get reviews like that.**

**TheAlphabetSong xx**

Young Geek Love- Secret Hobby

Eric folllwed Nell out of Ops after the end of a hectic and confusing case that had them questioning the securities of national databases around the world. Nell had spent the majority of the day on the phone with the CIA, the FBI and countless other agencies worldwide trying to figure out what the hell had gone wrong and to what extent the damage was. By the end of the day it was relaxing to be able to walk out of the office without a chaotic filled mind like they had for the past week and a half.

"Hey," Eric said making conversation.

"Hey," Nell returned.

"It's been such a hectic week," Eric stated.

"Yeah, it has," Nell replied.

"Sooo," Eric said, "do you want to do something tonight to unwind or..."

"Yeah, okay. Movie at mine?"

"Sure,"Eric agreed, "six thirty? "

"I have some things to finalize first," Nell replied, "Can we make it seven instead?"

"Sure, I'll be there around seven," Eric said as he headed away to his car.

As Nell watched him walk away she got into her mini and sat, pondering, the case load that she'd had and so she took five minutes to relish in the peace that her car had; until she'd almost dozed off. Know that she couldn't fall asleep in her car, she started the engine and drove off. Finalizing paperwork? What was she thinking, was she thinking? She just wanted some time to herself before Eric came to join her, which was roughly two hours from the current time, Nell noted looking at the clock in her car. When she got home all she wanted was to lay down and have a short nap but her mind was still buzzing with information and bewilderment from the case. It would've been stupid to even try to sleep with the current state of Nell's mind.

She walked into her small apartment, dumping her bag into her bedroom before walking into her kitchenette and opening the pantry, scouring it for any source of food. Her place was normally perfectly clean and neat with everything tidied and put in its place, of course all of this would have to wait until tomorrow.

Finding nothing in the pantry she moved on to the fridge, she decided on some blueberry yoghurt and that she really needed to do some grocery shopping. As she slowly put spoonfuls of the creamy mixture into her mouth, she scanned her bookself looking for an easy read; preferably something that she'd already read, in hopes that she could lose herself in her book and eventually fall into a short light sleep. She found a book and sat down and curled up with it on her sofa with a throwrug. With reading usually came a calming sense of security; reading was her fall back plan when she couldn't talk to someone (usually Eric and on occasion Kensi or Hetty). Nell loved the fact that with the turn of a page you could be wisked away from the challenges that reality brings and into a world where anything is possible. A world where princesses live in marvelous castles and they find their Prince Charmings; worlds where magic exists; where people almost always live happily ever after; where the guy gets the girl. Worlds that are set in parallels of ours; that make us thankful for what we have. Books are the place Nell goes to let the stress wash over her; but even reading didn't work this time. So figuring that she should at least try to get some sleep before Eric got there she went into her bedroom and crawled under the covers, putting her head on her blue pillow adorned with patterns of purple and green flowers.

She lay on her back with her eyes flickering open and closed, knowing full well that it wasn't going to help her get to sleep. Her eyes flickered towards her closet which was built into the wall and reminded her of how she resolved her insomnia as a child. She climbed out of her bed and walked over to her closet opening up the end that didn't hold clothes or shoes, it instead held one of the only things that she'd brought with her from her home, when she moved to Los Angeles. When Nell was in her teen years she had really bad insomnia and was having a tough time at school, music became her only refuge. So one of her only possessions that she had now from her childhood was her harp. Even with Nell's small size and the harp being almost as tall as she was, she pulled it out and dragged it into her living room with surprising ease. It had her initals 'NJ' painted on the side decorated with swirls and stars with simple silver snd white paints. She drew a chair up next to the harp, and was surprised that when she played it that it wasn't incredibly out of tune, although she had tuned it no less than a month ago which was also the last time she played it.

She leant it back and started to warm up her fingers by playing twinkle twinkle little star. It was always the first song she would play, for some reason if she played it first she would always remember which strings were which and it helped to familerize her with the harp and the harp with her.

She finished twinkle twinkle little star and barely took a break before she went onto playing another song: Fireflies by Owl City, when playing this song she also sang softly, complementing the sweet notes coming from the instrument in front of her.

# Fireflies- Owl City

"You would not believe your eyes

If ten million fireflies

Lit up the world as I fell asleep

'Cause they'd fill the open air

And leave tear drops everywhere

You'd think me rude

But I would just stand and stare.

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep

'Cause everything is never as it seems.

'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs

From ten thousand lightning bugs

As they tried to teach me how to dance

A foxtrot above my head

A sock hop beneath my bed

The disco ball is just hanging by a thread.

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep

'Cause everything is never as it seems

When I fall asleep.

Leave my door open just a crack

'Cause I feel like such an insomniac

Why do I tire of counting sheep

When I'm far too tired to fall asleep.

To ten million fireflies

I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes

I got misty eyes as they said farewell

But I'll know where several are

If my dreams get real bizarre

'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar.

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep

'Cause everything is never as it seems.

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep

Because my dreams are bursting at the seams," she sang.

As she'd hoped just from playing only two songs she was more relaxed than she was before. Standing up and walking into her room she collapsed under her covers falling into a deep sleep.

She slept a dreamless sleep only to be dragged out of her slumber not much more than an hour later by a knocking on her apartment door. She sat up and checked her watch it was five past seven, she stood up and walked out to the main room trying to pat her hair down.

"I'm coming!" she called as she went to open the door, before noticing that she'd left her harp in the middle of the room. Hastily pulling it to the far corner of the room and throwing a rug on top of it. Hoping that it wasn't too obvious, she walked over to open the door to greet Eric.

"Hey, come on in," she said trying to sound cheery but failed when she let out a small yawn.

"Hey, " Eric returned before hearing Nell's yawn and re-thinking his presence, "you seem tired, do you want me to leave?"

"No, no, it's okay. I've just not been sleeping well this week. Anyway, what movies did you bring?"

"Casablanca and The Sound of Music," Eric replied.

"Interesting choices," Nell stated.

"Or we could go with a comedy, if you have anything in mind."

"I might have something," Nell said walking over to her DVD cabinet which was sharing the corner where she had previously hidden- rather badly might she add- her harp and unfortunately Eric probably would probably notice it without his glasses on. Since his attention had been drawn to the corner he almost immediately noticed the bulky shape covered in a throwrug.

"What's that? " Eric asked.

'Damn' Nell thought but instead kept her head inside the cabinet and decided to play it cool and confused, "What's what?" she asked.

"That," he returned pointing directly at the rug covered harp. This time Nell had to take her head out of the cabinet and unfortunately her only option left was telling him a flat-out lie.

"It's just a broken lamp, that I haven't had time to replace yet."

"Well," Eric said approaching it slowly, "would you mind if I took a quick look at it? "

"I'd rather you didn't," it wasn't intended to sound mean it just came out that way.

Eric took no offence to this comment but instead reached forward; pulling the rug from the object it was hidding, to reveal Nell's harp.

She had no idea how to talk her way out of this one.

"Ummmm. What's- why's, How is a..." Eric started.

"It's mine," Nell admitted.

"And I didn't know about this why?" Eric asked.

"It's not something I like to talk about."

"Why?"

"Because then you would ask why I got it and I don't particularly like telling the story behind it."

"Oh," Eric said taken a back, "that's okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

That comment resulted in a heavy silence that hung in the air , until Nell started talking, figuring that if she was to open up to anyone Eric was

probably the best person.

"No it's okay. I got it when I was fourteen " Nell started sitting down on her sofa, "I wasn't in a good state of mind and I was diagnosed with multiple forms of minor depression and had chronic stress related insomnia."

"I wouldn't have guessed, " Eric said unable to hide the surprise in his voice.

"That's because I never bring it up for a reason. So I wasn't sleeping I wasn't taking my medication or going to school, I was grades above anyway so my parents weren't worried about that. What worried them was when I went through a particular phase where I barely left the house for two years. I'd stay haulled up inside the house reading, day in day out, fresh air was foreign to me. So one day when everything had gone too far, I passed out from sleep deprivation.

That was when I finally hit rock bottom, my parents took me to the hospital and eventually got me help with a therapist. She suggested that I got an outlet for my stress, or something that would help me unwind, because all my issues stemmed from my insomnia which came from keeping everything bottled up. Music became my outlet, when I started playing the harp I started sleeping better and I returned back to school just in time to start ninth grade. It was one of my only possessions I brought with me when I moved to LA. I normally keep it in my closet but since I've been sleeping terribly this week, I pulled it out this afternoon to help me unwind in hope of being able to have a small nap before you got here," Nell finished explaining.

"Nell, I never- "

"Don't feel sorry for me," Nell said cutting off Eric.

"It's just that I would never have taken you for someone who went through a rough patch as a teenager. "

"What do you mean?" Nell asked finally looking at Eric.

"Well most people can tell that Kensi had something major happened in her childhood; just from her personality and from how she holds herself with a purpose. Where as you and Kensi couldn't be more different," Eric explained, " which is a good thing because everyone is unique."

Nell let out a light laugh, "Oh, Eric you really do know how to make a girl feel special," she joked.

"That's not what I mean, I meant," he cleared his throat and went to try his sentence again, but was distracted when he noticed that Nell was now standing in front of him with her hand on his shoulder.

"Chill Wolfram, I'm only joking," Nell said with a slight laugh.

Eric tried to return a statement but it seemed that Nell's hand's current position had reduced him to feeble nods of his head. Nell, seeming pleased with his response and slightly and suddenly powerful with knowledge of what her touch could do to Eric, she took her hand of his shoulder, but not before quickly trailing her hand half way down his arm a first.

Eric cleared his throat before speaking next, " Play for me?" he asked softly.

"No way," Nell responded.

"Come on, Nell. Nelly. Nelster," Eric said practically pleading, looking at her with so much hope in his eyes.

When she looked up into his eyes it wasn't even a question.

"Okay," Nell replied giving in, "what do you want to hear?" she asked, yet again dragging the harp into a more central location and pulling a chair up to it before sitting down.

"Whatever you want to play for me," Eric replied taking place on Nell's sofa to watch her play.

When the song came to her head, she realised she had a subconscious reason for picking this particular song. She leant the harp back and got ready to play, after taking a deep breath she stared to play the intro to what Eric identified as 'Rather Be'. She was good, that he was sure of but he was blow away when she started singing because man could she sing.

# Rather Be

"We're a thousand miles from comfort, we have traveled land and sea

But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be

I would wait forever, exalted in the scene

As long as I am with you, my heart continues to beat.

With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay

Strolling so casually

We're different and the same, get you another name

Switch up the batteries.

If you gave me a chance I would take it

It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it

Know with all of your heart, you can't shake me

When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be.

We staked out on a mission to find our inner peace

Make it everlasting so nothing's incomplete

It's easy being with you, sacred simplicity

As long as we're together, there's no place I'd rather be.

With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay

Strolling so casually

We're different and the same, get you another name

Switch up the batteries.

If you gave me a chance I would take it

It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it

Know with all of your heart, you can't shake me

When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be

When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be.

If you gave me a chance I would take it

It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it

Know with all of your heart, you can't shake me

When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be.

When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be."

When she finished playing she stood up and looked at one awestruck Eric Beale, becuase he wasn't good with words at the best of times he figured that in this case actions spoke louder than words. He wrapped his arms around Nell and pressed a kiss into her cheek. His actions surprised Nell but were definitely not unwanted, at first taken by surprise she froze but then melted into his embrace and wrapped her arms around him. So in short you could say she frelted.

They pulled apart and Eric had finally managed to put a string of words together.

"That was incredible!" He said sounding astonished.

Nell looked down at her feet, letting a hanging certain of hair obsqure her blush from view.

"And I think with the spirt of the evening we should watch The Sound of Music," Eric suggested changing the topic slightly, "don't you?"

" That would indeed be an excellent idea," Nell replied.

So with no further adu Nell put the DVD in whilst Eric retrived their take-out from the plastic bag he'd left sitting on Nell kitchen bench, he got some cutlery out of a draw. He and Nell sat on her sofa watching the movie and eating their Thai food which was really tasty, Nell had rice and a Chicken Pad Thai noodles, where as Eric had rice with Panang Chicken.

With the empty containers sitting on Nell's coffee table and a plate of oreos sitting next to them they were happily watching and enjoying the movie. When the musical number 'Climb Every Mountian' came on Eric looked over at Nell who had fallen asleep on his shoulder and he thought, 'how did she fall asleep in the middle of such a good movie?'

When the movie was finished so were the oreos and Eric couldn't feel his arm where Nell had fallen asleep, getting up carefully making sure not to wake Nell he laid her head on a pillow before he put the empty Thai containers in the bin and the plate from oreos in the sink. He had also turned off the TV and put 'The Sound of Music' back in its case before putting it and 'Casablanca' back into his bag. Putting his bag across his shoulder; ready to leave he looked back at Nell and quickly placed the rug sitting on the end of the couch over her, before he turned and walked out.


End file.
